TEHRAN, Nov 15: Iran on Thursday said it has arrested more suspects in a nuclear espionage case, a day after a former nuclear official was accused of handing over atomic secrets to Britain.

“In the case of nuclear espionage, other people have been identified and arrested,” said Iran’s prosecutor-general Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The intelligence ministry said on Wednesday that former negotiator Hossein Moussavian, who was briefly detained in May on national security charges, was charged with passing classified information to the British embassy in Tehran.

Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said that in the eyes of his ministry Moussavian was a criminal whose case ‘was proven’. He also accused unnamed ‘influential people’ of trying to seek his acquittal.

No further details were given on the new arrests. But Dori Najafabadi appeared to hit back at Ejeie’s remarks, saying the only person who could give a verdict was the judge.

“In the case of Hossein Moussavian... only judicial officials can give a verdict,” he said. “The court must give its verdict on the basis of sufficient proof.” Moussavian is a close ally of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the pragmatic cleric who was trounced by his rival President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 presidential elections.—AFP